Monthly Report November 2013

This month I managed to write a regular “monthly” report, not a “bi-monthly” one like the months before. I have heard your call (in the comments and in emails / twitter messages) so this month I will focus on the percentage composition of iOS vs Android, sales vs ads, countries etc.

iOS vs Android

First, I am going to fuel the ongoing debate about which market is the better one by presenting my own stats. In the past I mentioned that my iOS vs Android income is %50 / %50. This has changed over the last months. Below is my current income composition.

At the moment, there is a 70% (iOS) to 30% (Android) ratio regarding my total revenue.
“Android” does include google play store as well as 3rd party stores (amazon, samsung etc.). The only 3rd party store worth to mention though is “fuhu apps” which makes about 15% of my total Android sales revenue. There is little chance to make ad-revenue in those 3rd Party stores, since the common “get paid per install”
model (like with Vungle or RevMob) always sends users to the google play store, and it is not allowed to link to google play from within an app that was downloaded from e.g. the amazon appstore.

Paid vs Ads

The question wether it is better to use advertising in an app or better sell them as paid apps is also very interesting. If you have a look below you can see that I profit from both of the models. In my opinion, it greatly depends on the type of app you have created.

For me, this is a 55% (sales) to 45% (ads) split. I would not want to miss any of those two options. A while ago you needed a lot of users for your ad-powered app in order to make up for a single purchase. Nowadays, in times where you sometimes get multiple dollars if a user installs another app due to advertising, you might end up making more money from a single user when using ads than you would get from that user with a purchase. Of course, chances that a user installs an app from within your app are still quite low. For high quality apps (like Oceanhorn) I would definitely say that a “reasonable price” (meaning not too low!) is way better than advertising.

Paid vs Ads on iOS

Now lets have a look how the paid vs ads ratio looks for different platforms. Lets start with iOS.

It is interesting to see that only 43% of my iOS revenue comes from sales and 57% of the revenue is generated through advertising.

Most appstore experts would say that iOS users spend more money than users of other mobile platforms and though revenue from sales would definitely be higher than revenue from ads. In my case, you can see that this is not true. I must admit that I was also a bit surprised that ad-revenue is higher than sales in iOS, but that’s how it is.

Paid vs Ads on Android

Now lets have a look at the same thing on Android.

Here is the next surprise: 86% of my android revenue comes from sales. Only 14% of the revenue is from advertising.

That is something that surprised me. There are a few explanations I can think of, like that fact that I have a lot of kids apps and that parents are willing to spend money for their kids. Or the fact that advertising is better paid on iOS than on Android. But nevertheless, this is a very unexpected result.

Downloads iOS vs Android

Now lets have a look at which platform gets the most downloads.

The download ratio is exactly the same as the total revenue ration. 70% (iOS) and 30% (Android).

I think this is a bit of a coincidence that they are exactly the same, but no surprise that downloads and revenues are close together. Like I mentioned before, they used to be 50%/50% in the past, now iOS is way out in front of Android. I am excited to see how Windows Phone will fit into this diagram once Corona supports it.

Country split

Last but not least I would like to show you from which countries most of my downloads come. I have picked the top ten countries.

A whopping 54% comes from the United States, followed by only 13% from the United Kingdom and even less by other countries. Given the fact that traffic from the US is “worth more” than from Thailand e.g. for advertising networks, it is no surprise that my iOS ad revenue is that high in comparison to the iOS sales.

Super Glow Puzzle

And now at the daily revenue generated with Vungle:The game generated $517 revenue in its first month

It’s no surprise that the download and revenue curve are quite similar. The game shows ads every X level (where X is a variable I can change on my server so I can adjust the amount of advertising in the game without having to re-submit a version).

The main reason why there is such a striking peak in the downloads and revenues is that I created some buzz about the app via facebook advertising. I have not yet evaluated all data from the campaign, and once I did I will at first write my experience down in my ebook so that the readers who bought the book get a new update and some more countervalue 🙂

What I already can say by now is that I think this was not the last time I used facebook for marketing purposes.

So that’s all for now. As always, feel free to ask questions in the comments section. I will answer them as soon as I find the time.

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9 Comments

Roman
on 18. February 2014 at 22:55

I just added vungle to one of my games. I will submit the update in the next hours.
So thank you for your insights in your reports, one of the most useful blogs for indie iOS developers like me.
Maybe you can create a new report if you have some time in the next weeks.